Hend Al-Mansour names 5 Saudi Arabian women artists to watch

Saudi Arabia has launched a venture to become an arts hub. The Riyadh-based Misk Art Institute, sponsored by Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, aims to be a center of education, culture and society.
Hend Al-Mansour, who has said that women artists are still often overlooked in Saudi Arabia, has named five women to watch who overcome those barriers. Many have been recognized inside and outside Saudi Arabia, particularly in the US.

• Manal Al-Dowayan’s work includes black-and-white photography of subjects such as the oil workers of Saudi Arabia. She also produces sculpture, video, sound, neon and large-scale installations.

• Sarah Abu Abdallah, who studied in the US at the Rhode Island School of Design, has exhibited everywhere from Sharjah to Paris and Louisiana. In her 2010 10-minute video, entitled “Saudi Automobile,” a car wreck is painted baby pink.

• Basmah Felemban is a graphic designer with a strong interest in Islamic art, whose work featured in an exhibition in Memphis.

• Nouf Alhimiary writes about art for Arab News and owns the digital studio Tamawoj.com. Her work has been exhibited with Cities of Conviction, which explored connections between Utah and Saudi Arabia.

• Dana Awartani is a Palestinian-Saudi artist born and raised in Jeddah. Her art featured at Art Dubai, in exhibitions such as “The Clocks Are Striking Thirteen”, in which global artists try to make sense of the concept of the truth.

Crown Prince: Future opportunities between Saudi Arabia and China are very big

Saudi Arabia and China signed economic cooperation agreements worth a total of $28 billion at a joint investment forum

The crown prince presided at a China-Saudi cooperation forum that concluded with 12 agreements on cooperation

Updated 6 min 25 sec ago

Arab News

February 22, 2019 15:24

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RIYADH: Future opportunities between Saudi Arabia and China are very big, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said Friday during his visit to China.

Citing a 33 percent increase in bilateral trade last year, the crown prince added that high-level contacts were paying off in areas from commerce to security and defense.
"Saudi Arabia's relations with China can be traced back a very long time in the past," Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told President Xi Jinping at their meeting in the Great Hall of the People in the heart of the Chinese capital.

Meanwhile, the Chinese president stressed his country's keenness on joint efforts with Saudi Arabia to support strategic relations between the two countries. He added that there has been coordination with Saudi Arabia on international and regional issues in recent years.

The crown prince earlier Friday presided at a China-Saudi cooperation forum that concluded with 12 agreements on cooperation in fields ranging from petroleum and the chemical industry to investment, renewable energy and counter-terrorism. Saudi Arabia is one of China's top crude oil suppliers and an important market for its exports.

Saudi Arabia and China also signed economic cooperation agreements worth a total of $28 billion at a joint investment forum. 35 agreements had been signed at the forum, held by Saudi Arabia’s investment agency SAGIA. Four licenses for Chinese companies were awarded at the forum.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman also pledged Saudi Arabia's backing for China's gargantuan "belt and road" infrastructure project, saying he was willing to link it with the kingdom's Vision 2030 plans— a blueprint put forth by the crown prince to wean the kingdom off its reliance on oil, particularly as sustainable sources of energy become cheaper and more popular.
The Crown Prince's visit follows trips to India and Pakistan, which send millions of laborers to Saudi Arabia and are seeking closer economic ties.